The Handbook
by xxRockerElla
Summary: Their covert operation calls for Kagome to get close to the guy who epitomizes everything the handbook is supposed to change. Only Kagome doesn't just find herself trying to prove their handbook works, she finds herself falling for him . . .


**The Book of Inuyasha:**

_**There's No "How To" Guide for Love.**_

_**Disclaimer:**____**I don't own Inuyasha…**_

_**Prologue**_

_-x-_

My parents waited in the cab with Sota while Hojo and I stood together on our front walk. It was the same front walk where we'd shared innumerable good-night kisses, held hands, and even taken a tumble in the bushes once after I jumped on him for a piggyback ride. So it wasn't like we'd never stood on the flagstone path before. But this time it was totally different. And not just because it was barely eight o'clock on a Saturday morning.

"I'm going to miss you", I told Hojo, my chin tucked into my neck as I attempted to keep from freezing to death right there in the middle of our good-bye. It was maybe twenty degrees out and a few snowflakes were falling. I watched as the wet flecks landed on Hojo's jacket and meted, leaving small dark brown spots on the khaki coat- a coat I had gotten him for Christmas, I might add.

It took me a week to decide whether Hojo would look better in the light brown(to match his hair) or mallard blue. I ended up going with the saddle field coat with the Primasoft liner size large.

"Me, too", Hojo answered and then licked the last remaining smears of cream cheese off his fingers before digging his hands deep into his pockets. I'd made sure the toaster oven wasn't packed until this morning so I could make Hojo one last sesame seed bagel with cream cheese. His favorite. "But it will be fine." Fine? Was he kidding me? Moving right after Christmas was bad enough. That my father decided at the last minute to stay behind in Tokyo to "tie up some loose ends" made it even worse. Add in the fact that it was my senior year, and the situation truly sucked.

I glanced over at the idling cab, where my mom was tapping on the backseat window and pointing to her watch.

"I'd better go". I wiggled my toes and tired to get the feeling back in my left foot. "If we miss the plane, my mom would kill me."

Hojo dug his hands deeper into his Primasoft-lined pockets.

"Sure."

Still, I didn't make a move. There was the small lingering matter of a conspicuous bulge in Hojo's right coat pocket, a bugle that I was contained some sort of going-away present-nothing huge, just _something_ he'd want to give me as a little reminder of him, a memento of our four months together.

"You Know, Kagome, I was thinking about it, and we should probably end this right here."

Great idea. I was all for ending the waiting. I was practically held out my hands waiting for the little gift box that meant Hojo was going to miss me as much as I was going to miss him. "Okay."

Hojo moved his arm, pulling his hand out of his left pocket for the first time since he arrived to say good-bye. Only he wasn't holding a beautifully wrapped velvet box with satin ribbon, but a wad of Taco Bell napkins!_**[[A/N: Yes I Know Taco Bell Is Not In Japan, But Work With My People xD!**_

"It's better this way- it'd just be too hard to keep things going with you all the way in Tokyo," he continued, and all I could think was, _What is he talking about?_

"So you're okay with that?" Hojo asked. "With breaking up?"

Wait. A. Minute. Breaking up? He was breaking up with me? On my front walk? With my parents and brother watching us from a yellow taxi? At eight o'clock on a Saturday morning –the very morning I was moving to Tokyo? "You want to break up?" I repeated, but my words were drowned out by the honk of the cab's horn reminding me we had a plane to catch.

"I think you'd better go." Hojo wiped a crusty smudge of leftover cream cheese from his cheek and stuffed the napkins back in his pocket.

He stepped aside so I could pass, and even thought I wanted to drop to the frozen ground right there and cry, what could I do? Cling to his leg, begging him not to leave me? I may have just lost my boyfriend, but I still had my pride. There was no way I'd let Hojo see me with frozen tears hanging from my lashes like icicles. As a walked passed Hojo-brushing against the sleeve of the coat that _I_paid for with my own hard- earned money, I wanted to tell him he was making a big mistake. I wanted to remind him that we'd been together for four months, four _amazing_ months. I wanted to put him in his place, to tell him I was better off without him. I wanted to tell Hojo go fuck himself.

But when I turned to face him, the words that escaped from my chapped lips weren't the ultimate put-down –they were the ultimate humiliation.

"I love you"

_-x-_


End file.
